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Death on “live broadcast”—fish mortichnia from the Upper Cretaceous plattenkalk of Lebanon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2025

Richard Pokorný Open the ORCID record for Richard Pokorný [Opens in a new window] ,
Roy Nohra ,
Pierre Abi Saad  and
Lothar H. Vallon Open the ORCID record for Lothar H. Vallon [Opens in a new window]
Richard Pokorný*
Affiliation:
Na Výšině 502, CZ-40331 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
Roy Nohra
Affiliation:
Expo Hakel, Lebanese Fossil Museum, 4354 Haqil–Jbeil (Byblos), Lebanon
Pierre Abi Saad
Affiliation:
Mémoire du Temps, 4504 Citadel Area–Jbeil (Byblos), Lebanon
Lothar H. Vallon
Affiliation:
Geomuseum Faxe, Østsjællands Museum, Rådhusvej 2, DK-4640 Faxe, Denmark
*
Corresponding author: Richard Pokorný; Email: cz.richard.pokorny@gmail.com
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Abstract

Proper identification of behavioral patterns is an important prerequisite for the identification of any trace fossil and even more so for its interpretation. For the last 70 yr, the continually advancing state of ichnological knowledge has led to a gradual recognition of recurrent patterns of organismal behavior documented in the fossil record, which in turn gave rise to the ethological categories. “Mortichnia” was proposed for traces created during a death struggle of the tracemaker but has been reported only in a few cases. Fish mortichnia so far have only been reported in one specimen recovered from the Upper Jurassic Plattenkalk of Nusplingen (SW Germany). The category mortichnia is refined herein, but remains ambiguous. Eight newly discovered unique specimens of mortichnia from Upper Cretaceous marine sediments in central Lebanon (Haqil, En Nammoura) are preserved together with their tracemakers and described herein. In addition, 14 further incomplete specimens were collected where no tracemakers are present. However, morphology and close provenance allow them to be assigned to the same ichnotaxon.

The Lebanese mortichnia originate from fish that were subjected to significant environmental or individual stress leading to their deaths. During death convulsions, their bodies created sedimentary structures with a specific recurring morphology. The ichnogenus Pinnichnus n. igen. with ichnospecies P. haqilensis and P. emmae n. ispp. is proposed for these specimens.

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Paleobiology , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , November 2024 , pp. 627 - 640
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Paleontological Society

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